Music: Amy Helm returns to Canton for gig at Festival at the Farm

Thursday

Amy Helm said she felt like these trying times needed music that was hopeful and uplifting, and her new album "This Too Shall Light" includes songs chosen for their affirming aura and communal spirit.

Helm's new album is slated for a September 21 release, but before that she's scheduled to perform on Saturday's edition of this weekend's Festival at The Farm, which is being held Saturday and Sunday at the Prowse Farm in Canton. Saturday's show is highlighted by Amos Lee, Trampled by Turtles, Helm and others, while the Sunday music slate includes Martin Sexton, Suitcase Junket and Los Angeles rockers The Dawes.

Helm seems like a fresh-faced ingenue on the music scene, as this is just her second solo album, but in truth she's had a singing career that stretches back beyond two decades, and includes vocal work on a long list of albums by a wide variety of established stars. She is the daughter of the legendary drummer from The Band, Levon Helm, and singer/songwriter Libby Titus, and Amy was a backup singer in Levon's band for 10 years, up until he died in 2012. (Ironically, one of Levon's last performances was at the Life Is Good Festival, held at this same site.)

Amy Helm had been an integral part of the group of Woodstock musicians who formed the core of Levon's Midnight Rambles, at his Woodstock barn, and after his death she spent several years touring as a member of the Americana group Ollabelle. It wasn't until July of 2015 that Amy made her own solo debut, with the delectable album "Didn't It Rain." Just as music fans might think of The Band as progenitors of the whole Americana, back-to-roots movement, Amy's own music drew from a panoply of American styles, from folk to country to soul and gospel.

For the latest album, Helm, now 47, wanted to work with a certain kind of producer and she settled on Joe Henry, whose previous work has shown him to be a master of both Americana music and minimalist production. Henry, a three-time Grammy winner, is best known for his work with Bonnie Raitt and Elvis Costello, among others, and Helm was especially taken with his work for Susan Tedeschi. Helm left her Woodstock environs and headed for Los Angeles to record with Henry, and the whole album was done in four days.

"I just loved the sound of some of the many albums Joe has produced," said Helm, by phone from a tour stop in Oregon last week. "I think he has a really special way of taking a singer, and knowing what kind of sonic background to best accompany them. Even on his own albums, Joe has that knack of finding just the right approach. It seemed like he was the first person that definitely knew what I was feeling when I sang these songs."

Henry enlisted some West Coast musicians for the album, so that Helm was not working with her usual Woodstock and East Coast pals.

"Using a different group of musicians was exciting, and difficult, and challenging," said Helm. "I had to go out there and connect with everybody, and I met a bunch of new people, so many of them excellent writers as well as musicians. But then it was just getting past all that, and singing in the most honest way you can. I was lucky, in that these were people as sociable as they are talented, so it was an easy leap of faith to put my music in their hands."

Several of the tunes on the forthcoming album feature galvanizing piano and organ, such as "Long Daddy Green," and since Helm plays piano we wondered if that was her work on the keyboards.

"I might be able to do that, but it would take me decades," Helm said, laughing. "The piano on the record is played by Tyler Chester, a Los Angeles musician who did a fantastic job. He's a very inventive player who plays right down the middle of what a song needs. But he also has the ability to take it a little left, too, which I love. I found his playing to be exquisite, and it really shaped all of our arrangements. 'Long Daddy Green' was written by (jazz singer) Blossom Dearie, and in some ways it reminds me of 'I Only have Eyes for You,' so I had this idea of doing an arrangement of that song that centered on the organ."

The album's 10 songs include Helm originals as well as some marvelous cover choices. Everything was recorded together as a band with very few takes so that spontaneity was a key. For an album that sounds so precise and with such gorgeous vocals and vocal harmonies, the model Henry was using might surprise a few folks.

"Joe wanted to emulate Delaney and Bonnie's (1971) album 'Motel Shot,' Helm explained, referring to a classic from that group that emphasized late night, often acoustic jam sessions. "The most obvious characteristic of that album had been that it feels loose and has a sense of abandon, and it's open and joyful. We did it all in four days with almost no overdubs and usually just one or two takes. Doing a lot of takes makes everybody kind of stale, I think, and doing it this way was exciting.

"Joe had picked a bunch of songs and I also brought a bunch with me," said Helm. "We would sit around and play for each other and see what we felt would work best. Joe brought 'Michigan' and 'Mandolin Wind' and I brought 'Gloryland' and 'Long Daddy Green,' and 'This Too Shall Light.' "

The title cut is a remarkable song, not only just for its theme of tenacity and enduring in the face of difficulty, but also for Helm's evocative vocal and its a capella ending. It's a cover from the band Hiss Golden Messenger's MC Taylor and Josh Kaufman.

"Mike Taylor and my friend Josh came to Woodstock for a couple days and started writing, intending the music for their record and another project," Helm noted. "One song they did we had done as a demo and it stuck in my head. When Joe and I spoke of doing this album, this song kept coming back to me. The version we did is very close to that demo and here we just let (drummer and Berklee College alumnus) Jay Bellerose set the pace."

Another tune, "Odetta," was penned by Henry and salutes the 1960s folk icon. It's an anthem of sorts where Helm's vocal is world-weary, yet still inspired and determined.

"I love that song," said Helm. "For me, the singing was the center of gravity for a lot of these songs. 'Odetta' and 'Michigan' have that trio (of vocal harmony singers) in the middle too, and you can really hear those gospel harmonies, as we intended."

One of the most striking songs is "Michigan," that ballad of heartbreak and moving on, from the folk duo The Milk Carton Kids. The original version is so superb, it is a challenging cover, but Helm brings a slow and reflective tone to it that adds layers of soul and the keyboards produce almost a steel drums sound, making it resonate in a more haunting way.

"I didn't feel the vocals on 'Michigan' were daunting, because my voice is so different than theirs," Helm pointed out. "I could hear that chorus as gospel in a church. Milk Carton Kids have such a specific sound, it's easy to interpret their music and never sound like them. That is another instance where Tyler plays really amazing keyboards, and I love that arrangement."

The old Rod Stewart hit "Mandolin Wind" is performed almost as an acoustic folk song, with delightful slide guitar from Doyle Bramhall II, and an organ-and-slide guitar musical conversation that provides an indelible finishing touch.

"'Mandolin Wind' is my favorite track," said Helm. "That was the first one we cut and there's something about the way the slide weaves in and out. That interplay between Doyle and Tyler is the best example of the spontaneity we were aiming for with this whole project."

The presence of Levon Helm is on this album as Amy included a 1965 song from Levon and the Hawks – basically The Band before they became famous, when they were still scufflin'. "The Stones I Throw" works as a piano-fired march, which features organ also, as the gospel-flavored lyrics state "The stones I throw will free all men ..." Later on, the album concludes with a wonderful vocal choir version of "Gloryland," a gospel hymn Levon liked and taught his daughter.

"There's some history to that early Hawks song," Amy explained. "They had put out a single, 'She Don't Love You,' and that was the 'B side.' But it's a fun song and something that has, along with 'Gloryland' helped me through difficult times. The album became about that feeling and it turns out that a lot of these songs have that aura of faith."

Amy, whose own family includes her sons Lee and Hughie, said she remembers playing at Prowse Farm with her dad on the festival headlined that year by Ray LaMontagne and she's looking forward to returning.

"One thing I learned from my father, I have a really good band, so damned good they make me sound good," said Helm. "Playing there again is going to be exciting and inspiring."